Barrett Brown Officially Accused of Threatening FBI Officer

Everything he said in tweets and YouTube videos is used against him

Self-proclaimed Anonymous spokesperson and initiator of Project PM, Barrett Brown, has been officially charged after being detained by US authorities on September 13, 2012.

According to the indictment, he is charged with threatening a federal law enforcement officer, making threats on the Internet, and conspiring to leak the personal details of a government employee.

The court document contains several Twitter posts, including ones in which Brown encouraged Anonymous supporters to release information on law enforcement representatives – referred to as “pigs.”

Prosecutors are also using the YouTube videos in which he threatened FBI agent Robert Smith against him.

“Barrett Lancaster Brown transmitted messages through the Internet on his Twitter.com account and his YouTube.com account, threatening to shoot and injure agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and specifically focusing on Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent [RS],” reads the indictment.

The second count – conspiracy to make publically available restricted personal information of an employee of the United States – alleges that the suspect “knowingly and willfully did combine, conspire, confederate and agree with other persons […] to make restricted personal information about FBI Special Agent [RS] and his immediate family publicly available.”

Many stress Barrett Brown’s threats should not have been taken so seriously and that his incarceration is unjust and “undermines urgent systematic crimes.” However, it’s clear that US authorities didn’t see the trolling (as some call it) as a joke.

In the meantime, Brown’s supporters are attempting to raise some money to help him pay for a lawyer. Global Post reports that he has been denied bail, currently being held in a prison near Fort Worth, Texas.

Brown’s house was raided and he was arrested by Texas police while chatting with his supporters on TinyChat, part of the raid and his altercation with the ones who were about to detain him being recorded.